Thanksgiving Cooks, Listen Up!

by Audrey Ryan | Nov 18, 2019

As many of us are getting ready to host or attend Thanksgiving meals in celebration of our good fortune this year, we want to remind everyone to pay special attention to electrical safety around kitchen appliances. Our Texas hill country kitchens are known to crank out amazing meals. But the mixture of water, hot surfaces, flexible cables, and electricity can create a dangerous environment for accidental hazards to occur.

Did you know that more than half of all accidental house fires start in the kitchen? Government statistics reveal that electricity in the home kitchen causes the largest number of accidental house fires reported. These fires are due to people misusing electrical cooking appliances, including microwaves. Let’s run a check on kitchen safety before Thanksgiving cooking frenzy ensues, shall we?

Safety proof your kitchen with these important tips:

· Never use switches or any electrical equipment when your hands are wet. Dry your hands first!

· Don’t leave cooking equipment or electrical appliances like dishwashers and toaster ovens unattended.

· Make sure to let equipment cool down before wrapping flexible cords around them. Likewise, leave the cooling equipment out on the counter until fully restored to normal temperature before storing it inside a cupboard or pantry.

· Check that flexible cords to appliances such as crockpots, coffee makers and toasters are in good condition.

· Never try to clean or fix an appliance when it is still plugged into the socket. It’s a simple thing that people overlook when they’re in a hurry and serving guests or cleaning up as quickly as they can.

· Never try to free your stuck piece of toast from a toaster while it is plugged in, and never use a metal utensil like a knife or fork. Not only are there often live electrical parts inside, but even if the toaster is unplugged, metal objects could conduct the toaster’s heat to your hands and resulting in injury.

· Make sure you clean your oven and grill with a scrub brush and remove all the build-up of fat and grease which is a major cause of fires

· Distribute your electrical appliances across several electrical sockets to avoid their overheating.

· Don’t set plastic food containers or other objects on top of appliances like the microwave, which can block ventilation

· Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly and have fresh batteries in case something does go wrong

· Once a year, defrost your fridge and freezer to make sure these appliances keep working properly for you in the future, like whenever you have a whole house full of company.

Lastly, we recommend selecting a turkey carver with some decent experience using sharp cutlery. If something goes wrong in that department, we can’t help you… Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!